Scrumptious Dairy Free Lemon Curd

How to Make Dairy Free Lemon Curd

Can you make Lemon curd without butter? Is that even possible? Why, yes, yes it is!

Growing up in Scotland we ate lemon curd a lot as children. I don’t believe we ever made it at home but it was easy to find in jars in the grocery store right next to the jam and marmalade.

Most of the time we put it on toast and if the grown ups weren’t looking we would be eating it out of the jar with a spoon, but I don’t think we managed to pull that off very often..

Well fast forward a lot of years and I’m no longer living in Scotland and as a result of having Celiac disease I can’t tolerate dairy products very well in large amounts, so that’s meant I’ve had to totally rethink and reinvent a lot of the foods that I grew up with.

So how ’bout this lemon curd, I mean traditionally it’s made with butter so that’s that’s a bit of a problem for those of us who can’t eat dairy, right?

Fortunately I’ve found that Earth Balance vegan butter is a good substitute both in my gluten free baking and for some other recipes that require a decent dairy free butter substitute.

I just want to give you quick word of caution if you are either new to dairy free or are making this for someone else who has to eat dairy free.

Did you know that not all margarines are dairy free? In chatting to friends who have cooked for me at various times I realised that many of them assumed that margarine is only made with vegetable oils but almost all of them contain some milk so watch out for that.

And to add to the confusion some of the lower fat/low calorie dairy free varieties of margarine are totally unsuitable for baking, frying or using as a general butter substitute in many recipes because they contain a lot of water and just don’t work in the same way that butter does.

If you’re not in the USA you will need to do a little research on what the best non dairy margarine is to use, if in doubt try one that says it’s suitable for baking and frying as they are typically a little more robust.

Oh, and if you’re looking for some more gluten free and dairy free desserts that are easy to make then you can’t leave without checking out my recipe for Gluten Free Orange Cake which is SO delicious and super easy to make!

My Gluten Free Fruit Pizza which has a deee-lish brownie base with raspberry cream cheese frosting, I think you’ll love it!! And how could I forget my gluten Free Lemon Bars! They were one of the first and most popular recipes on my blog. 🙂

This looks super yummy!! My husband would love it…lemon is one of his favorites! Thanks for Sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday – Link Party. Hope you come back again tomorrow to share some more stuff!! Pinned!!

Just wanted to let you know… I am about to do a test batch of your recipes for these bars. We are having a Summer Solstice Festival, and a friend and I are having a table with hibiscus tea and fruited lemonade to sell with baked “goodies”. I will let you know how they turn out….

This was my first go at lemon curd… It tastes delicious! It was easy, but I wasn’t sure how thick was thick eniugh when cooking in the stovetop (double boiler ). It took me about 20 minutes of cooking but my bowl was not super close to the simmering water. It is in the refrigerator right now, and I’m assuming it will continue to thicken , right?

Hi Marina, I’m sorry it won’t work for you, I know it’s hard when you’re on a restricted diet. The recipe is indeed dairy free (dairy includes any product made from milk, eggs are not considered to be dairy) I’m not sure how you could make this recipe vegan, you might be better to look for a recipe that’s already vegan as I’m not sure if this one can be made without eggs.

This recipe was tasty with coconut oil instead of butter. Coconut oil substitutes well for butter because it is 100% fat and has an even larger molecular structure than butter, resulting in less sticking and great mouthfeel. I did have trouble with the lemon curd not getting thick enough. It was thick enough for the pan to show a bit while I was stirring it and achieved a consistency of honey, but didn’t thicken more than that. Next time I might try a little more egg yolk.

I am preparing this lovely recipe as I type. I am wondering how big a ‘serving size’ (312 cals.) is? I can’t imagine anyway this isn’t going to be a fantastic addition to my cooking repertoire. Thanks.

Hi Janis! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipe. So, this is a recipe I’ve had for a long while and I changed some things up on the recipe card and long story short, I have no idea what I originally thought a serving size was! I have updated it now to make 6 servings (which has created a new per calorie serving of 189) so the total amount is about 1134 calories. I will add, my little calorie counter widget does not have specific brands so if you need a really accurate calorie count you’d be better running it through an online calorie calculator.

I doubled the recipe, used 25% mandarin juice and zest, and used less sugar since I was out and added a little brown sugar(2.25c total vs 3c) this turned out so good! Had some over dairy free coconut milk lime ice cream last night and was in heaven. Thanks for the great recipe.

I live in the US and that brand is not available in the UK I don’t think, I’m sorry! Look for a dairy free margarine or vegan butter like “Pure” Sunflower spread, I was able to find that in Tesco last time I was home visiting family. I can’t say for sure but I think that will work for this recipe.